By Victor Kanayo
Former England manager Sven-Goran Eriksson has disclosed that officials of the Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) demanded half of his salary for him to lead the Super Eagles to the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
Eriksson who revealed this via his book “My Story”, Sven alleged that he was interviewed by a panel of officials, who asked him “stupid” questions, for the vacant Super Eagles post at the Hilton Hotel in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital.
Heritage Times HT recalls that coach Eriksson was approached to coach Nigeria’s senior men team when Sani Lulu was NFF President.
Before then, Indigenous coach Shuaibu Amodu had been fired after the country crashed out at the semi-final of the 2010 African Cup of Nations in Angola.
“After the meeting (interview), an agent whom Athole (Eriksson’s agent) worked with locally explained that half of my salary would be deposited in a special bank account.
“It was not too hard to figure out that the special account would involve someone else taking a piece of my pie if I got the job.
“There was no way I would agree to that. I never received an offer of a contract, and it was just as well,” Eriksson said.
NFF later employed a Swede coach Lars Lagerback to lead Nigeria to the 2010 World Cup, where the team failed to go past the first round.
